Paul Biya

Paul Barthelemy Biya'a bi Mvondo (born 13 February 1933) was the Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982 (succeeding Ahmadou Ahidjo and preceding Bello Bouba Maigari) and the President of Cameroon from 1982, succeeding Ahmadou Ahidjo. Biya defeated his predecessor in 1983-84 and became a dictator, ruling Cameroon for many decades.

Biography
Paul Barthelemy Biya'a bi Mvondo was born in Mvomeka'a in French West Africa (present-day Cameroon) on 13 February 1933 to a Roman Catholic African family. In 1961 he graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in France and he rose to prominence in post-independence Cameroon. He was appointed the Director of Education under Prime Minister Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1965 and became Prime Minister a year later when Ahidjo became the President. Upon Ahidjo's surprise resignation in 1982, he became the new president and crushed a coup in April 1984 by Ahidjo, whom he sentenced to life imprisonment.

Biya became the dictator of Cameroon and made an alliance with Sudan, a great African power located in East Africa. Biya sent the 54,000-strong Cameroonian Expeditionary Corps to support Sudan in the 2002 Egyptian Liberation of Dongola as a loyal ally, and the force performed well in the fighting. Voter fraud let him win elections repeatedly and he ranked 19th on the Parade Magazine list of the 20 worst dictators on Earth.